The United States have always protested against the Notes: doctrine of international law which permits the subjugation of the weak by the strong. A self-governing state cannot accept sovereignty over an unwilling people. The United States cannot act upon the ancient heresy that might makes right...When the white man governs himself, that is self-government, but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government -- that is despotism. The Anti-Imperialist League, 1899